All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.

David Attenborough’s Journey a Prelude to the new BBC Documentary Series

On Sunday at 8pm (GMT), BBC Two will show the one hour television documentary called “Attenborough’s Journey”, the prelude to the new BBC natural history series “First Life” that tells the story of how the first animals and plants evolved. “First Life” charts the origins of life on Earth and combines visits to some of the world’s most important fossil locations with ground-breaking CGI footage to bring long extinct animals such as Trilobites and Anomalocaris back to life.

“Attenborough’s Journey” is a documentary about the making of the “First Life” series it follows Sir David Attenborough as he travels the world to film this new set of television programmes. As Sir David (aged 84), journeys to the parts of the world that have had a special meaning to him in his fifty or so years of broadcasting. He visits his childhood home in Leicestershire where he first collected fossils, including Ammonites and Trilobites. He then travels onto Morocco’s arid deserts, again onward to the glaciers of Canada, before visiting Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Sir David Attenborough Focusing on a Piece to Camera

Picture Credit: BBC

As an introduction to the “First Life” series of documentary programmes, “Attenborough’s Journey” provides a unique insight into the mind and character of one of the world’s most famous and well-travelled broadcasters. This documentary combines recent footage shot on various locations with archive footage from Sir David’s five decades of television programme making.

When Sir David was asked about how he keeps going, despite being 84 years young, he commented that, although he has a few aches and pains there was no point worrying about it.

He said in an interview before his 84th birthday:

“My legs don’t work and people say, ‘You should have a knee replacement’, but when you are 83 there would be another year or 18 months of pain and stuff, and by that time you are 85, 86. Come on! We are mortal and you cannot make yourself a 26-year-old again. You might as well cope with it the way it is going.”

We can’t wait for the TV programmes to be aired and I know a couple of my colleagues have already requested the book that accompanies the “First Life” series be added to their Christmas lists.